The best Thanksgiving BF has ever seen!!!!

Thanksgiving was so wonderful!!! It is my favorite holiday, and instead of being bummed out about not being home for it (like last year), some other PCV's and I hosted a big T Day dinner THIS year in Bobo. It was perfect! We had 27 volunteers come down for it... some from as far as a full day's trip away!! And thanks to my great family and friends, we had tons of decorations and all the traditional food you get to eat in the states. And since we have much to be thankful for, we all sat around family-style and did the traditional "what are we thankful for" roundtable before eating. We did Thanksgiving a little like how the Pilgrims and Indians did it, too..... slaughtered, defeathered and gutted three HUGE turkeys for dinner. Though we did have an oven to cook in... but whatever. How many of YOU slaughtered your own turkeys??? Got to love Thanksgiving! Here are some pics....









(Thank you, SUJIN, for the decorations!!! Everyone was blown away by the decor, and it made it really feel like we were home... )



The three assassins after the deed of killing the turkeys was done... and the aftermath!




The de-feathering team





The kitchen staff




Laura cutting up the grilled and sauteed turkeys. We cheated on the actual cooking of the turkeys. I got a local restaurant, who is a friend of the Peace Corps, to cut up and cook the turkeys. But we really did kill, pluck, gut and clean them ourselves before handing them over!!




The BIG FEAST!!!!!





Me, about to pack on a few pounds, and absolutely thrilled to do so.



Kelly's and my pies



Me and my PCV neighbor, Megan. We practically live in the same village and we share a great love of food!!!




One very satisfied customer, all full of turkey!


What I am thankful for most of all is the support from everyone back home. Especially my family!! But also my wonderful friends. It's just been nonstop support from you all ever since I left you, and I can't express how much it means when you are this far from home. I am also extremely thankful that I get to spend NEXT Thanksgiving in America, and that I only have seven more months to go!!!!


In October, I may have written about a festival we had in village for the installation of a new mayor in my village. Here are some pics from that day, too.... the instrument that looks like a xylophone with gourds is called a balofon. I am wearing an outift made of a fabric the village picked out to be "the fabric" of use for clothing to wear for the festival.










And finally, here is a great picture I captured of that monkey, Sushi, who bit me and made me get a rabies shot. I just like this action shot - it makes him look very intimidating, n'est ce pas??



That is all from me. I will write more soon. One of my awesome friends is coming for a visit in just a couple of weeks, so I should have some more good pics from our time together and whatever travelling we will get to do.